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I have seen fuselage wrinkling in pictures before because of a hard landing, but I’ve never seen wing damage because of a hard landing. Anyone here have any ideas? A microburst, or other type of wind that could cause this plane to hit the runway so extremely hard??

Wow surprising damage for a hard landing. I can understand the fuselage damage to an extent, but the wing damage too. They don't state what the weather was like at the time of landing. That was one of our 757-251's when I was Northwest according to the registration.

Wow surprising damage for a hard landing. I can understand the fuselage damage to an extent, but the wing damage too. They don't state what the weather was like at the time of landing. That was one of our 757-251's when I was Northwest according to the registration.

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Yes, I did notice that it was a former Northwest 757. It’s sure sad to see a plane like this with such major damage.

That passenger gave a good account of the landing. Bounced three times, what gear hit when plus the fact he thought the incident might be an accident at one point. I had a very hard landing on an American Airlines B727-200 from LGA-DFW after circling DFW for a while because of the usual summer thunderstorms where at touchdown we bounced back up and then he put her back down first left gear then right then up again and then finally a really just big bang as both main gear hit the runway and then the nose gear. I was sitting in the aft section across from the aft galley because that was an Emergency Exit row with a lot of leg room, so I was about 3 rows from the lavs and the rear airstairs door where the F/A's jumpseat was. When I turned around she was in the brace position that's when I became afraid. What does she know that I don't. With a lot of breaking and reverse thrust we did manage to stop but it looks like we used most of the runway to do so as we turned off to taxi I could see where at the very end of the runway, couldn't tell you which one we used that day.
The cabin crew did their usual "Welcome to Dallas and connecting flight speech" and as we were going to our gate the Captain came on the PA apologizing for the hard landing and saying that the thinks the aircraft might have entered an updraft or windshear caused by the passing thunderstorms that caused the "uncomfortable" landing and he wanted to have the plane inspected before continuing on to San Diego so all passengers would have to deplane. (Everybody on board seemed calm or maybe just scared, mostly frequent business travelers and the wind shear and updraft was and plausible suspicion because of Delta 191 L1011 crash a few years earlier at the same airport and I remembered Eastern 66 at JFK in the 70's) Sounds like a similar experience that the the Delta Passenger described. Although I didn't feel we were having an accident the F/A sitting behind me apparently thought so. Don't know what ever happened to the aircraft I made my connection to OKC while the passengers going on to SAN where still sitting at the gate. Funny thing is I wasn't afraid at the time. Only realized after getting to my hotel room hours later what could have be happening.

Yes, this passenger gave a very clear and detailed account. I remember the hardest landing I was ever in. It was on a Delta flight several years ago, late at night on an A320. I was sitting in first class. It was a loud bang when the main gear hit the runway. It was so hard that those of us in first class were pitched forward in our seats. I can’t imagine what it must have been for those in the back who were right above the MLG. It must’ve been painful. I don’t know if the plane sustained any damage, because it was the last flight of the day. I’m sure it was inspected.

That sure is a lot of damage for a “hard” landing?......Looks like he may have had a good side load went went up and dropped in.....yep have it inspected....Who said the job isn’t tough. As they say the pilot is only as good as his last landing

Years ago while doing T/GO’s landing with a student, we landed so hard we set off the ELT.....Yep the ole 150 went in to maintnenance for a gear attach point check and of course to shut off the ELT and apologize to the tower for disrupting the pattern!.....Fortunately the gear was okay and the tower was not too mad!!!

Rich I do remember that accident very well because I had just left JFK the day before on Eastern to visit my Aunt and Uncle in Ft. Lauderdale and watched the whole tragedy on the news there recognizing the exact spot along Rockaway Blvd where the crash occurred. When I experienced my hard landing at DFW the Delta L1011 at DFW in 1985 crash was more on mind. In 1985 they did know about wind shear at that time but not much about microbursts. The NTSB reports for the crash called the conditions "Adverse Winds" a contributing factor to the crash of EAL66 plus putting the blame on the pilots for continuing the approach despite 2 aircraft ahead of the flight reporting "shifting winds". They did discuss possibly diverting to LGA but it was also it was involved with thunderstorms so they continued the approach. I guess the term "adverse winds" was the best the NTSB understood wind shear in 1975. Although the aviation community was aware of these phenomena the study of microbursts and wind shear detection were in it's infancy in 1985 with NASA studying "on board microburst detection systems". I believe the crash of Eastern 66 escalated the awareness of wind shear and the discovery of microbursts and the systems possible to detect it.
I wonder if the airport involved with the Delta Aircraft had a low level wind shear detection system. I'm just assuming no here.

Rich I do remember that accident very well because I had just left JFK the day before on Eastern to visit my Aunt and Uncle in Ft. Lauderdale and watched the whole tragedy on the news there recognizing the exact spot along Rockaway Blvd where the crash occurred. When I experienced my hard landing at DFW the Delta L1011 at DFW in 1985 crash was more on mind. In 1985 they did know about wind shear at that time but not much about microbursts. The NTSB reports for the crash called the conditions "Adverse Winds" a contributing factor to the crash of EAL66 plus putting the blame on the pilots for continuing the approach despite 2 aircraft ahead of the flight reporting "shifting winds". They did discuss possibly diverting to LGA but it was also it was involved with thunderstorms so they continued the approach. I guess the term "adverse winds" was the best the NTSB understood wind shear in 1975. Although the aviation community was aware of these phenomena the study of microbursts and wind shear detection were in it's infancy in 1985 with NASA studying "on board microburst detection systems". I believe the crash of Eastern 66 escalated the awareness of wind shear and the discovery of microbursts and the systems possible to detect it.
I wonder if the airport involved with the Delta Aircraft had a low level wind shear detection system. I'm just assuming no here.

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I was wondering the same thing. I don’t know if the Azores has a wind shear detection system. You would think they would, because from what I’ve heard the winds at that airport can be very tricky at times.

Evidently it was wind related. Another passenger commented that on the way in there was a lot of crabbing and the wings were never level. From what we’ve heard of passenger observations it must have been severe crosswinds and a possible wind shear. Of course all this is speculation and we really won’t know until an official report comes out. Whatever happened, it’s sure sad to see a plane like this so badly damaged.